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UFC champion Georges St-Pierre says Hendricks will have to wait his turn

Georges St-Pierre holds the belt after defeating Carlos Condit in their UFC welterweight title fight Sunday, November 18, 2012 in Montreal. A relentless St-Pierre celebrated his comeback by winning a five-round decision over Condit to unify the welterweight title in a bloody battle at UFC 154. Photo: Ryan Remiorz/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Hendricks has accused St-Pierre of ducking him, saying the Montreal mixed martial arts star is afraid of his knockout power.

That drew laughs from St-Pierre.

“He wants to create animosity to make a story, for me to accept the fight,” St-Pierre told The Canadian Press. “But I believe the fight with Diaz is more interesting to the public and is the fight people want to see.”

“People want the big fight and the bigger fight is Diaz right now,” he added.

Hendricks (14-1) has won five straight including spectacular knockouts of Jon Fitch and Martin (The Hitman) Kampmann to lay his claim as the No. 1 contender at 170 pounds.

But St-Pierre (23-2) says one of those wins should actually be a loss.

“He fought Josh Koscheck. I watched that fight and I would give that fight to Koscheck,” the champion said.

Hendricks won by split (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) decision.

St-Pierre requested the Diaz fight, telling UFC boss Dana White it was unfinished business. Diaz (26-8) agreed and White put them in the main event of UFC 158 on March 16 at Montreal’s Bell Centre.

The two were slated to meet in October 2011 but Diaz was yanked by the UFC after failing to turn up for news conferences in Toronto and Las Vegas with St-Pierre.

“I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid to cancel the fight (this time),” St-Pierre said. “Because I would be very disappointed. I’m giving him the chance now. It’s a big-money fight.

“I believe he’s a smart guy. He just acts crazy but I believe he’s a smart guy and it will be a good fight.”

Diaz is serving a one-year suspension for testing positive for marijuana around his February interim title loss to Carlos (Natural Born Killer) Condit.

St-Pierre beat Condit at UFC 154 last month in his first outing in almost 19 months due to knee surgery.

“Hendricks, no problem. Next time it’s going to be Hendricks,” said St-Pierre. “I cannot split myself in half.

“Because if I were to fight Hendricks now, Diaz would complain and people would complain. But the big fight right now is Nick Diaz.”

St-Pierre says he can’t make everyone happy.

“When I beat Diaz, now people are going to say ‘Now it’s Hendricks, why don’t you want me?’ Someone else will complain. It’s like that. When you have the title, people complain.

“It’s a very stacked competition, the welterweights. Especially now because I just came back from a long time off so I haven’t defended my title for a long time. So there’s a lot of guys that believe they deserve the shot more than others. That’s why the situation is complicated.

“But I’m not mad at Hendricks. I understand Hendricks, I understand his point. But you know, I cannot split myself in half.”

Asked where a proposed super-fight with middleweight champion Anderson Silva fits in his schedule, St-Pierre said he cannot predict the future.

“Right now I focus only on Nick Diaz. We’ll see what’s going to be the situation after the fight because the situation might change. We’ll see what’s going to happen.”

The 31-year-old St-Pierre, who plans to spend Christmas with his family, says he has no plans to retire.

“I don’t know when I’m going to want to finish. Right now I’m very happy and I plan to do this for a long time. We’ll see how it goes.”